FO question

[cantcallit]

I work at a small express station that deliveries FO packages along with my regular deliveries (Usually 1100 and 1200 commit with deliveries two to three times a week) Usually I have to break off from running stops in sequence, deliver my FO package and backtrack to where I left off. Being a rural route this can cost me thirty minutes or more of on road hours for each delivery. Management does not see this as a problem and still expects me to meet my sph goals. Is there anyone out there that has a route similar to this and if so are your sph goals being adjusted in any way. Thanks

 

[outtatime]

Do not even worry about SPH. As long as you are working as directed and getting your deliveries done on time there is nothing your manager can do. SPH are your managers made up numbers and will never be the same day to day, especially on a rural route. If he keeps giving you a hard time about it have him give you a check ride and ask him to show you how to do the route correctly. That usually shuts down the conversation real quick.

 

[Purple no more]

Outtatime is 100% correct. I would take it as far as this. Take a notebook and document ANY conversation with your Ops/Senior regarding your FO. That way if you are ever called on it you have the support for your statements and position.

 

[59 Dano]

I work at a small express station that deliveries FO packages along with my regular deliveries (Usually 1100 and 1200 commit with deliveries two to three times a week) Usually I have to break off from running stops in sequence, deliver my FO package and backtrack to where I left off. Being a rural route this can cost me thirty minutes or more of on road hours for each delivery. Management does not see this as a problem and still expects me to meet my sph goals. Is there anyone out there that has a route similar to this and if so are your sph goals being adjusted in any way. Thanks

Ask for your gap report daily. If breaking off to make the FOs is causing you to miss your SPH goals, it will be evident on the gap report.

 

[Purplepackage]

If they have a problem with your SPH ask for a check ride. On a rural route it's extremely difficult to judge how many stops someone can do.

Some routes I'll run 8 stops an hour but for 1 or 2 hours I can only get off 3 or 4 stops. Screw there numbers, make your commits and don't get in an accident and your golden

 

[Cactus]

Management wants it all and on a silver platter too.

Tell them to do the route, you'll ride along and see how it's done. That'll shut them up real fast.

FWIW, FO's service was never designed for rural areas.

 

[outtatime]

To sum it up. Do your route to the best of your ability to include making service commitments and being safe at all times. Do not speed or run. SPH or GAP reports are none of your concern if you follow this advice, they will NEVER be the same from one day to the next as there are too many variables. Like I've said before, have your manager give you a check-ride to see what you need to change since they love the reports so much.

With DRA, the reports are even more useless as the route boundaries change from day to day. How can one be held to the same goals when today you are driving 4 miles into another city than you did yesterday? I've done one city route that had about 90 stops each day for two days in a row and left the building at similar times both days. I finished over an hour earlier with zero late's than I did the previous day as DRA had me driving 2 routes farther north for P1 service, and had 3 lates. This was a route I knew very well with no bulk stops too. Everything was equal between days except how far out of the normal area I had to drive. Did I care? Nope, not one bit. I did the best I could.

 

[Fred's Myth]

If you and everyone else is doing the best they can, then DRA is accomplishing its goal. Brilliant, no?

 

[dex 84]

They can't expect you to always hit sph on certain routes because where your stops are can be more important than how many of them you have. If you have a neighborhood that's 20 minutes in and 20 minutes out then having one stop in there isn't going to take much less time than if you had five. Add to that that they're offering FO service in an area where I'm assuming the earliest commit time otherwise is 1630, and there's no wonder you don't hit sph every day.

Like others said, it should be evident in the gap report that you're doing your job the right way, and it's just the early commit times that are making your route less efficient.

 

[dezguy]

I over heard a manager tell a coworker that FO deliveries take priority under all circumstances. If a FO stop is 30 minutes away, you skip 30 minutes of work to get it there before commit. If it might cause service failures, that's on the manager, not you so long as you notify the manager ASAP.

 

[Southeast Hoss]

What is FO?

 

[dezguy]

What is FO?

First overnight.

 

[Southeast Hoss]

Never heard that at the FedEx ground term where I work-

 

[Operational needs]

Never heard that at the FedEx ground term where I work-

Because there IS no FO at Ground. It's Express.

 

[MAKAVELI]

Never heard that at the FedEx ground term where I work-

That's because the only level of service offered by Ground is, " IT WILL GET THERE WHEN IT GETS THERE".

 

[Operational needs]

I over heard a manager tell a coworker that FO deliveries take priority under all circumstances. If a FO stop is 30 minutes away, you skip 30 minutes of work to get it there before commit. If it might cause service failures, that's on the manager, not you so long as you notify the manager ASAP.

Anytime they hand me FO for my rural route, they already know it's going to be late because I'm not breaking route.

 

[dezguy]

Anytime they hand me FO for my rural route, they already know it's going to be late because I'm not breaking route.

The rural route I used to have, I'd do it and then subtract however many stops I would have had to skip to get to that stop, for the day. If they made me go out with my full stop count, those stops would be dex 01 unless they sent me help.

 

[Southeast Hoss]

Because there IS no FO at Ground. It's Express.

sorry- I know now

 

[cantcallit]

Thanks for everyone's reply to my question regarding FO packages I submitted this morning. It intrigues me on how someone would even thiink making FO deliveries to rural areas profitable to the company to begin with. Probably is a service UPS is providing and we think we have to follow suit

 

[Cactus]

Thanks for everyone's reply to my question regarding FO packages I submitted this morning. It intrigues me on how someone would even thiink making FO deliveries to rural areas profitable to the company to begin with. Probably is a service UPS is providing and we think we have to follow suit

Spot on.

The FO service was started for critical deliveries in larger cities bigger than Pigsknuckle Arkansas and for locations within fairly close proximity to their respective ramps. Well Fred with his unquenchable thirst for profit, got the brainstorm to service all zips. Memphis therefore ignores all the problems associated with such a service.

I agree though, that a lot of the rural areas can't be very profitable.